In brief: Damien Hirst has gun to his head

The Spanish artist Eugenio Merino has caused controversy by showing a work of art that features Damien Hirst pointing a gun at himself and blowing his brains out . Merino, who is showing 4 the Love of Go(l)d, a pun on the artist's own (as yet unsold) £50m diamond-studded skull, For the Love of God, at Madrid's Arco art fair. "I thought that, given that he thinks so much about money, his next work could be that he shot himself. Like that, the value of his work would increase dramatically," Merino told the Guardian............. Michelle Harrison has been named winner of Waterstone's £5,000 Children's Book Prize for her fairy story The 13 Treasures. The 29-year-old wrote the first few chapters of her book, about a teenage girl who can see fairies, while at university in Stafford in 2002............ Veteran British actor Edward Woodward, who starred in the cult film The Wicker Man, is to appear in the BBC soap opera EastEnders............ Mickey Rourke, up for an Oscar on Sunday for his performance in The Wrestler, announced today that his 17-year-old pet Chihuahua, Loki, had died.............. Girls Aloud, whose line up features the X-Factor judge Cheryl Cole, have pledged to sing at the wedding this weekend of cancer-stricken reality television star Jade Goody............... ·